Browsing: Date search contains "1995"

Throughout his long career in both Houses of federal Parliament, Michael Baume was seldom far from controversy. Quick-witted and hard-working, with a flair for publicity, Baume was a relentless, effective and often ruthless opponent inside and outside the chambers. He was a close friend and ally of John Howard, for many years acting as his ‘numbers man’ in the Senate. Although he was amply

Michael Beahan, electrician, teacher, and state secretary of the ALP in Western Australia (1981–87), rose to be the nineteenth President of the Senate, holding that post from 1 February 1994 to 20 August 1996, before his formidable parliamentary career was cut short by pre-selection party politics. Michael Eamon Beahan was born on 21 January 1937 in London, England, the son of Irish autoelectrician Francis

Most knowledge of Robert John Bell’s early life derives from his highly personal first speech to the Senate in May 1990. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania, on 22 July 1950. His parents were based at Bronte Park, his father employed on hydro-electricity works. Soon the couple separated, Robert remaining with his mother, Frances Ellen. While she qualified as a schoolteacher, the boy lived

In 1973 when the Commonwealth Parliament amended the Electoral Act 1918 to lower the minimum voting age to eighteen, Vicki Bourne was a nineteen-year-old student. Inspired by the opportunity to vote, she looked at the environmental policies of each of the major political parties, rejecting the major parties in favour of the Australia Party. In 1977, when the Australia Party was merging with the

David Gordon Cadell Brownhill was born at the family property, Beaudesert station, near Mudgee, NSW, on 16 November 1935. He was the youngest of four children and the only son of Gordon McMillan Brownhill, grazier, and his wife Mary Wyatt, née Cadell. His early education was completed by correspondence. He then attended Cullenbone Public School and, from 1947 to 1953, Sydney Church of England

Bryant Robert Burns was born in Rockhampton, Queensland on 24 March 1929. He was the youngest of three children of Charles Robert Burns, a railway engine driver, and his wife Alice Charlotte, née Wassman. Burns attended Leichhardt Ward Boys’ School until the age of thirteen, when he abandoned his studies to go droving. For three years he worked as a stockman and horsebreaker in

Christabel Chamarette represented Western Australia as a senator from 1992 to 1996. Her term, although short, was made noteworthy by the fact that between 1993 and 1996 she shared the balance of power with other minor party and independent senators, including her Greens (WA) colleague Dee Margetts. Christabel Marguerite Alain Chamarette was born on 1 May 1948 at Hyderabad, India, the daughter of Arthur

Within two years of entering the Senate in 1981, Bruce Childs was a co-convener of the left-wing of Labor’s federal parliamentary party and the ALP throughout Australia, retaining that role throughout the period of Hawke and Keating Labor governments. Acknowledged as a unifier by his left-wing colleagues, he was recognised by senators from all sides of politics for his courteous, patient and unpretentious manner,

John Coates’ long political career, first as a Member of the House of Representatives for the seat of Denison (1972–75) and then as a Tasmanian senator (1981–96), mirrored the fortunes of federal Labor over three decades. John Coates was born in Melbourne on 23 March 1944, the son of Graeme Coates and his wife Catherine, née Croker. Both his parents were primary school teachers

Robert Lindsay (Bob) Collins, the first federal parliamentarian from the Northern Territory to hold ministerial office, was born in Newcastle, NSW, on 8 February 1946. His father, Robert James Collins, an illiterate merchant seaman and labourer, was nineteen when he married Fay Lindsay, an eighteen-year-old shop assistant, at Newcastle in January 1945. Bob was the eldest of five children, two girls and three boys.

Malcolm Arthur Colston was born in Brisbane on 5 April 1938, the eldest child of Douglas Thomas Colston, a carpenter, and his wife Myrtle Clorine Ruby, née Wenck, a primary school teacher before her marriage. Even in his childhood Malcolm was more interested in books than sport. An above average student, he attended Mitchelton State School, Brisbane State High School (1952–55) and then went

Bernard (Barney) Cornelius Cooney was born on July 11, 1934 at Currie, King Island, Tasmania, the third of four children of Bernard Pius Cooney and his wife Constance (Corrie) Eva, née Curtain. Most of Cooney’s mainly Irish forebears had lived in Tasmania for several generations, one back to the 1820s. There was the frequent Tasmanian background of both convict and west coast mining heritage

John Richard Coulter was born in Perth, WA, on 3 December 1930, the elder of two children of English-born John Wolfe Stuckley Coulter, a clerk for the Vacuum Oil Company, and Constance Amelia Coulter, née Braddock, a nurse. Growing up in the then outer suburb of Nedlands, John walked each day through the bush to Nedlands Primary School. His mother wanted him to pursue

Arthur Winston Crane (known as Winston) was born in Perth on 21 August 1941, one of seven children of farmer Arthur Crane and his wife Lavina, née Longman, from Bindi Bindi in the wheat belt north of Perth. Winston Crane’s uncle, Albert (Bert) Crane was a longstanding Member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly representing the constituency of Moore for the National Country Party

Noel Ashley Crichton-Browne, who was President of the Western Australian Liberal Party from 1975 to 1979, was elected to the Senate for a term beginning on 1 July 1981. He was reelected in 1983, 1984, and 1990, serving as a Liberal Party senator until 9 September 1995 and then as an Independent Liberal, before retiring upon the expiry of his final term on 30

Rosemary Anne WIllis (later Crowley), was born in Melbourne, Victoria on 30 July 1938, the second of six children of Monica Mary Willis, née Redmond, and Everard Joseph Willis, an accountant. Her family, her Roman Catholic upbringing, and her primary and secondary education at Kilmaire Brigidine Convent in Hawthorn between 1943 and 1955, combined to instil in her a passion for social justice and

John Robert Devereux, union organiser, was born in Gormanston, Tasmania, on 8 February 1946, the second of seven children and only son of Albert Bernard and Floris Merle Devereux. His father was a truck and bus driver and labourer. Educated at St Mary’s Convent School, Gormanston, St Joseph’s School (1954–57) and R. M. Murray High School (1958–61), both at Queenstown, and at the Mt.

Gareth John Evans, the elder child of tram driver Allan Oswald Evans and his wife Phyllis (Phyl), née LeBoeuf, formerly a store manager for Woolworths, was born at Kew, Melbourne, on 5 September 1944. Gareth grew up in Hawthorn, not far from the tram depot where his father worked, before the family moved to Surrey Hills in the 1950s. Evans maintained a life-long connection

Dominic Foreman spent most of his early working life in the automobile industry, first as an assembly worker, then as a union official. Committed to the Labor Party’s ‘great goal of social equality’, he continued during his years in the Senate to defend the rights and conditions of low-paid workers, particularly those in manufacturing industries.[1] Dominic John Foreman was born in Clare, South Australia,

Brian Francis Gibson was born on 4 November 1936 at Ascot Vale, Melbourne, the eldest son of ten children of Kingsley Melbourne Gibson and his wife Agnes, née O’Donnell. He received his secondary education at St Patrick’s College, Ballarat. Kingsley Gibson worked for the Forests Commission Victoria and Brian followed his father into forestry, gaining a forestry scholarship to the University of Melbourne where

Norman Francis (Gerry) Jones was born on 16 August 1932 at Roma, Queensland, the younger of two sons of William Norman Harcourt Jones, railway worker, and his wife Kathleen Alice, née Moore, a tailor. When he was growing up, his father insisted that he should be known as Gerry and later in life he formalised that name by deed-poll. He attended St Columba’s School,

Cheryl Kernot was born Cheryl Paton in Maitland, NSW on 5 December 1948, the eldest of four children of Mervyn Roydon Paton, a purchasing officer for the Maitland City Council, and his wife Zena, née Hunter. To help with the family budget, Merv took a second job as manager of the Princes Theatre in East Maitland. Although their parents were not regular churchgoers, all

Born on 29 December 1952 in the working class suburb of Carlton in southern Sydney, Stephen Loosley was the son of clothing worker Bernard Alan Loosley and his wife Jean Elizabeth, née Pike. The eldest of three children, Stephen was educated at Carlton Public School before winning a place at the selective Sydney Technical High School in 1965. Between 1972 and 1975 he undertook

David John MacGibbon was born on 13 May 1934 in Brisbane, Queensland, son of Frederick William MacGibbon, cane grower and accountant, and his wife Eva Nicholson, née Ewart. He was educated at Maryborough High School and the University of Queensland, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Dental Science, winning the Carlisle C Bastian Prize and the Mary Moffatt Memorial Prize in 1956. MacGibbon

Dee Margetts was a senator for one term between 1993 and 1999 during which she shared the balance of power in the Senate with other minor party and independent senators. The way she dealt with this situation was influenced heavily by her previous activities and experience as an environmental and peace activist. Diane Elizabeth (Dee) Margetts was born on 5 March 1955 in Fremantle,

James Philip (Jim) McKiernan, the third of eight children of James and Mary (Maisie) McKiernan, was born on 11 October 1944 in Cavan, Ireland. From the age of six he attended De La Salle College run by the Christian Brothers but left at the age of twelve, blaming brutal and humiliating treatment that he had received at the hands of one of the brothers.

Jocelyn Margaret Mullett (later Newman), was born in Melbourne on 8 July 1937, the eldest of three surviving children of Lyndhurst Mullett, solicitor, and his wife Margaret, née Maughan, a comptometrist. She was educated at Mont Albert Central School and Presbyterian Ladies’ College. At the University of Melbourne she was active in student politics, co-edited the student newspaper, Farrago, was elected ‘Miss University’ in

Bill O’Chee was an unconventional parliamentarian: at twenty-four years of age he was the youngest person to sit in the Senate, the first with Chinese ancestry to be elected to the federal Parliament, and he was an Australian representative in world championship skeleton races, an extreme one-person form of bobsledding. O’Chee sometimes sported a bright pink tie and drove an expensive Lotus Elise sports

John Horace Panizza was born on 23 March 1931 at Southern Cross, Western Australia, the eldest child of Bortolo (Robert) Panizza, a farmer, and his wife Caterina Cristina, née Della Bona. Born in Italy, Panizza’s parents came to Australia in 1921. Robert Panizza initially cut sugar cane in Ingham, Queensland, from where he went on to work in the mines near Broken Hill and

Warwick Parer, entrepreneur, businessman and politician, was born in Wau, Papua New Guinea on 6 April 1936, son of Kevin Parer and his wife Annie (Nance), née McGahan. The Parers were pioneers of the timber, mining and aviation industries in New Guinea, where Kevin founded an airline, Parer’s Air Transport. Kevin Parer was reported to have been the first Australian to die at the

Margaret Reynolds, activist, educator and author, was born Margaret Lyne, in Hobart on 19 July 1941, the only child of Walter Rodis (Rod) Lyne and his wife Jess, née Montgomery, a teacher. Rod Lyne, who worked on his father’s farm before serving with the Australian Army in New Guinea, died in 1947. During the war Jess took Margaret to Launceston to live near her

Christopher Cleland Schacht was born on 6 December 1946 in Melbourne, the only child of Lloyd Christopher and Mary Cleland Schacht, née Timcke. In the early 1860s his great-grandfather, Heinrich Schacht, arrived in Brisbane from Schleswig-Holstein, a disputed border province between Prussia and Denmark; another descendant was Peter Shack, former Liberal MP for Tangney, WA. Chris Schacht grew up in Gippsland, Victoria, where the

James (Jim) Robert Short was born on 7 December 1936 at Shepparton, Victoria, the youngest of three children of George Short, a surveyor with the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, and his wife, Elsie, née Hearn. At the outbreak of World War II the family moved to Wangaratta when George Short was seconded to head the local branch of the wartime Manpower Directorate.

Siegfried Emil (Sid) Spindler, businessman, lawyer and philanthropist, was born on 9 July 1932 at Lodz, Poland. He was the son of Oskar Karl Spindler, business manager, and Gertrud Alma Spindler, née Bernewitz. Sid Spindler’s life was shaped by his experiences in occupied Poland during World War II. The Spindler family were Volksdeutsche, ethnic Germans who held Polish citizenship and lived within a multicultural

Grant Ernest John Tambling, the eldest of three children and known to his friends as ‘Tambo’, was born at Wondai, near Kingaroy, Queensland, on 20 June 1943. His parents, Ernest ‘Tam’ Tambling, and Edna, née Williamson, both schoolteachers, had married in Darwin in 1941, and returned there in 1946 after Ernest had completed army service at bases in New South Wales and Queensland. Grant

Baden Chapman Teague was born on 18 September 1944 at the Ashford Hospital, Adelaide. A fifth-generation Australian, he was the second of three children of Colin Archibald Teague, a builder, and his wife Nita Kathleen, née Readett. While growing up in the suburbs of Glenelg and Somerton Park, Baden Teague was educated at local primary schools and at St Peter’s College, Adelaide, (1955–62), where

Suzanne Margaret (Sue) West was born 21 September 1947, the daughter of Edna May, née Bennett, and her husband Timothy Henry (Tim) West, a grazier from Cowra. Tim was an unsuccessful ALP candidate at four state elections between 1976 and 1984 but earned an OAM for his services to the Cowra community. Sue was indelibly shaped by her local community. Living fifteen miles from

Thomas Clive (Tom) Wheelwright was chosen on 25 May 1995 by the New South Wales Parliament in accordance with section 15 of the Australian Constitution to fill a Senate vacancy created by the resignation of Stephen Loosley. He was a senator for thirteen months, the balance of Loosley’s term, and for most of this time his own party, the ALP, was in government. Wheelwright

In her valedictory speech after John Woodley’s retirement from the Senate, Australian Democrats Senator Vicki Bourne suggested that he had always followed the advice of Proverbs 25:21 to comfort enemies with food and drink. It was natural that Senator Bourne should turn to the Bible in speaking of Senator Woodley, a Uniting Church minister who was sometimes called ‘Rev’ by his parliamentary colleagues. John

Throughout her life Olive Zakharov was a grassroots campaigner for human rights and social justice. She eschewed personal publicity and political advancement in favour of promoting the causes and issues that she believed in. Born in Kew, Melbourne, on 19 March 1929, Alice Olive Hay was the youngest of four daughters of Robert and Alice Anderson Hay, née Dobie. Scottish-born Robert Hay was a